Aarushi case: Supreme Court to hear Talwars’ plea

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear dentist couple Nupur and Rajesh Talwar’s plea to call 14 “crucial” witnesses who had been dropped by the CBI during the murder investigation of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.

The Talwars have been accused of the double murder. Aarushi was found dead with her throat slit inside their Noida house on May 16, 2008.

Hemraj’s body was discovered a day later on the terrace of the same flat.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, on an urgent mentioning by the counsel of the Talwars, directed listing of the petition of the dentist couple on Friday. Even the special CBI court in Ghaziabad is scheduled to hold a hearing of the trial on the same day.

The Talwars have approached the apex court challenging the order of the special CBI court rejecting their plea for calling 14 other witnesses, including ADG (Law and Order) and the then CBI joint director Arun Kumar, to record their statements.

In their special leave petition (SLP), they have challenged the May 4 trial court order dismissing the plea to take suo-motu cognizance and summon the 14 witnesses including Arun Kumar, who was supervising the probe by CBI’s first team. Kumar was then a joint director.

According to them the witnesses are crucial and have to be examined before the trail court records the couple’s statement.

“A peculiar situation has arisen. Several judges of the HC have declined to hear our appeals. Due to this our pleas have become in fructuous,” said their lawyer Tanveer Ahmed Mir.

The last prosecution witness to have recorded his statement was the case’s investigating officer AGL Kaul.

In his deposition before the Additional Judge, Kaul, who headed the CBI probe, had told the court that their investigations revealed no evidence of any third person’s entry in the house.